There is a steep learning curve for NBA rookies on and off the court. Though there is little the league can do to show a rookie how to play against LeBron James or Kevin Durant, it can show him how to navigate the many new challenges and obstacles a professional athlete faces.
That was the goal of the NBA’s Rookie Transition Program, which was held in Florham Park last week.
“They’ve opened our eyes to all the resources that are available, and then it’s really up to us to take advantage of them,” Nets rookie Mason Plumlee said. “It’s very helpful. Of course, guys will complain that it’s long and it’s like sitting in class. Nobody likes that.
“But, if you take a few things away from here, it can help you financially, in your relationships. … This is our job, so it’s just focusing on our job.”
The program is a crash course in what it takes to be an NBA player off the court, and a broad view of how the league works through a variety of presentations. Though it is unlikely all of the information the players received last week will sink in immediately, it gives them a knowledge base and the tools to access that base when needed.
“I think the most important thing is they know where to go when they need help or have a question,” NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said. “There’s so much information that’s presented to them in a short amount of time — we’re doing 12-hour sessions — they couldn’t possibly absorb everything we’re telling them.
“But most importantly it’s to give them a sense of confidence that there’s people here that are committed to their success, and making sure that they’re not alone.”
One way the league plans to put that into practice is by developing a specific Rookie Transition Program app, which it still is working on. The app will give players access to all of the information they received last week, as well as people they can reach out to if they need help.
“I think part of what happens with so much information being presented to them here that the best any of us could hope for is that, ‘Oh, yeah, there is a person there to help with this issue,’” Silver said. “I think, even for the players, going to the Internet in an anonymous way is much easier sometimes than personally asking for helpand I think through technology, we can do even more to get that information at their fingertips.”
One focus of the program is to give players sound financial advice, given their new-found wealth. There have been plenty of well-publicized stories in recent years of high-profile players burning through tens of millions of dollars. The rookies took note of what they heard
“This program is going to help me in many ways, but I’m focusing on the financial part, the financial aspect of the program,” Knicks rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. said. “That’s my biggest interest.
“You only play in this league for so long, and you only can make so much money after your career is over and your career is not that long. So you just try to do as much as possible and invest as much as possible and just try to live off what you get while you’re in the league.”
The league can’t walk its rookies through every situation, but it does give them the blueprint to handle them, and a support system.
That, more than anything, was what Silver said he hopes the players took away from the program.
“There are people out there, whether it’s current or former players, who have been through it before, and we’re here as a support group to help you,” he said.